29 January 2016

From the Principal

Zoe Smith

Hello,

Welcome to the new school Year!

I hope you enjoyed the holiday break. I had a wonderful time in Denmark and England. We missed the snow but still had a great time.

It is an exciting year as we officially start the Curiosity and Powerful Learning Journey! Keep an eye out for the date of a Parent Information Session on Curiosity and Powerful Learning early this term. We are keen to share our new direction with you and show you ways you can become involved and/or support us at home!

We have 5 new teachers to introduce to you this year. In Prep we have three new teachers, Mrs Sanitha Mahabeer, Mrs Michelle Tink and Mrs Nicole Ford. Mrs Tink and Mrs Ford are a teaching team who share one Prep class. In Year 1, Mrs Ailsa Hughes has joined us and Year 4, Ms Kerrie Byrne. I am sure you will make them all feel very welcome.

Mrs Lee Mackenzie and Mrs Ally Hynes, are our front counter office staff. Ms Brooke Arnott will also be helping in the office from 8am to 9am each morning. The office hours for 2016 will be 8am until 3.30pm. It is very important for parents to ensure their children are picked up in a timely manner after school. Please contact the office ASAP if you know you will be late to pick up your children from school. Any unsupervised children in the school grounds at 3.10pm will be asked to wait for their parents at the office.

Communication between school and home is very important. Your class teachers are always your first port of call! Our teachers try and make themselves available to parents before and after school as needed. If you require more than a few minutes of your teachers’ time before or after school, please make an appointment. Teachers at Graceville check their emails once a day, usually before or after school. It is important to note, teachers are entitled to a 48 hour response time for all written communication. Our teachers endeavour to respond within 24 hours. Our jobs are different to those of an office worker, our number one priority is paying our full attention to the children in our care and so emails are of a secondary importance during the school day. Please use telephone or face to face communication for all emergent issues. The office staff are always willing to take a message and pass it on to the class teacher. Teachers will be holding Parent Information Sessions in week 2 or 3 this term. Please try your hardest to attend so you are aware of how your child’s class will operate in 2016. You will also receive a minimum of two class newsletters per term to provide you with up to date information.

Our Administrative team take on a range of Sub School Duties. Ms Maree Hass is the Sub School Leader for Prep to Year 2, Mrs Zoe Smith is the Sub School Leader for Year 3 and 4 and Mrs Lisa McKeaten is the Sub School Leaders for Year 5 and 6. As you know the class teacher is always your first port of call for any issues. If after a discussion with the teacher you feel an issue or concern is of the level of importance for administration, your first contact in the office is your child’s Sub School Leader. In this case, you will need to make an appointment though the front office or via email or phone. As the Principal, I am obviously available to all parents however I do appreciate parents, teachers and Sub School Leaders working together prior to me becoming involved.

A very important policy to note is around payment for school excursions/incursions, camps, swimming, interschool sport, competitions, instrumental music etc. All payments must be paid by the due date for a child to attend. In previous years, the school has incurred debt from allowing children to attend events and activities and then parents not paying. In 2014, the debt to the school was in the thousands of dollars! In 2015, we chased these payments up and luckily were able to recoup most of these outstanding amounts. In 2015, we trialled bringing in a “no prior payment, no attendance” policy and had much more success in parents paying on time. From 2016, we will officially enforce that parents must pay for all excursions, incursions, activities etc. by the due date or children will not be able to attend or participate. Please understand that we do not wish children to miss out on these activities. If your family are experiencing genuine financial stress or difficulties please let the Business Services Manager, a DP or the Principal know. They will arrange for your child to attend. The school can then make personal arrangements with your family about how we can work with you to best support your family through your difficult period.

We have made some changes to Assemblies this year also. Whole School Assemblies will be held each Thursday Fortnight on ‘even’ weeks. The format for Whole School Assemblies will change this year as they will be focused on progressing our Curiosity and Powerful Learning Improvement Agenda as well as adding a Wellbeing focus. There will be something different to share or show at each Assembly. As the Principal, I will also hand out certificates to one child from each Year level aligned to our focus areas. Assemblies on ‘odd’ weeks are Sub School Assemblies. Prep to Year 2 will be held on a Tuesday afternoon and Year 3-6 on a Thursday afternoon. We would love to see you at the Assemblies.

Finally, we had some very exciting news in the last week of school. Mrs Sandy Davey was selected, as one of a few teachers from around Australia, to attend the STEM X Academy - Excellence in Teaching Professional Development. STEM X was presented by Questacon and the Australian Science Teachers' Association. During the week, selected primary and secondary teachers from across Australia engaged in inquiry based workshops delivered by Questacon and practicing scientists to co-create inquiry based learning experiences for school students. Participants also went on a range of excursions to visit science education venues such as Mt Stromlo Observatory, CSIRO Discovery Centre, Australian Institute of Sport, Geoscience, Tsunami Warning Centre, Parliament House and the Australian Defence Force. Mrs Davey represented QLD very well and her feedback was that the experience was both inspirational, highly relevant and practical! Mrs Davey will be sharing her knowledge with all of our teachers over the course of the year. Congratulations Mrs Davey!

I hope you have a great week.

Newsletter Articles

From the Deputy Principal

Maree Hass

Welcome back everyone to another school year. There are many excited young faces in the playground and classrooms eager for all the new experiences they are engaging in. Some children’s energy is waning come afternoon, so early nights and good nutrition is required, especially at this time of the year.

Our new Prep students have met their buddies and the buddies have been an invaluable help in orienting our new students to where everything is and feeling safe and confident in this new environment. Thank you and well done buddies.

Parents and care givers are all invited to join us for Junior Assemblies which will be held every second Tuesday afternoon from 2.15 in the hall. These assemblies will be for all Prep to Year 2 classes. Year 2 students have the opportunity to develop their skills of public speaking by taking turns in leading these assemblies and classes also take part presenting items for us all. We also like to recognise Birthdays and present awards to students from across all classes.

Below is the calendar for term 1 assemblies.

Music News

Naomi Lindh

Welcome to the new school year! I hope all of our families had a fabulous holiday. I am very pleased to announce that Ms Julie West will be continuing to work at our school as a classroom music teacher and choral conductor on Mondays and Tuesdays and I will be here from Wednesday to Friday each week. We have also had a change to some of the instrumental teachers on our staff this year. Mrs Ruth Prout and Mr Steve Stiller will be continuing, and we welcome Mr James Kukulies and Mr Alex Grodecki to our teaching team. At the time of writing this, our instrumental timetables are yet to be finalised but we are planning for this information to be provided to students by the end of week 2. Our choirs will be beginning rehearsals in week 3 for interested students. We will send a note out to families about our choir rehearsal days and times in week 2.

We look forward to an exciting year of music with our students!

P & C News

Welcome to all new families that have joined our school community over the summer break. A big welcome back to returning families for Term 1, 2016! We hope you had a great holiday and are recharged and ready for the new school year. Some improvements to the school grounds using P&C funds happened towards the end of 2015 and throughout the summer of 2016 - briefly

• The new Adventure Playground – Completed in the last week of 2015 ($120k Project)
• Replacement of the main oval cricket wicket synthetic turf (along with a $500 contribution from Wests Junior Cricket). Thank you to Julian Lockwood for organising this.

A special thankyou needs to go out to Sue-Ellen Lockwood and her wonderful team of dedicated supporters for opening up the uniform shop over the past few days, even on Australia Day! This service is 100% volunteer based and is quite unique. We’re very lucky to have such a wonderful support base within our school.

Volunteers

GSS has always prided itself on the support it receives from its parent body and the wider community. Many programs and activities that benefit our children would not be possible without the wonderful volunteer groups within GSS. So… decide which is for you and if at all possible join in with the many and varied areas within the school that need your help. Examples are: tuck shop, uniform shop, Contact Club, reading groups, Spellathon, Trivia Night, Parents Party, Sports Day, Active School Travel, School Banking and the Fete.

Of course the P & C is always looking for new members. If you are interested in being a part of this great school, please contact the P & C or speak to your classroom teacher to see how you can help. It’s our children who will benefit!!!!!

Class Reps:

Most classes are having an information session for parents this week, or next. This is the perfect time to nominate yourself for class rep. This is a very important role for each class and ensures there is a direct line of communication from your class teacher, the school and the P&C. To make it easier and less time consuming many classes have more than one class rep. Please consider this role for this year and get to know everyone in your child/ren’s class.

Contact directory:

Each year a contact directory is developed and shared with each family of the school. This directory has the name of each child in the class and their contacts that are provided by parents. It is the perfect way to organize play-dates, pick-ups, fete volunteers etc.

This year we’re hoping to update as much information as possible from last year’s directory however we still need families to confirm contact details are correct. To help with this process, could you please ensure you provide your details to your class rep once we generate the respective class templates.

Drop off zones – how they work:

There is a drop off zone outside the front gates of the school on Acacia Street. The design of this drop off area is as follows:

• Only the top three cars, i.e. those closest to the front gates are to stop and drop off children. The rest must wait until these cars have moved on.
• The driver is not to leave the car at any time while in this line. Helping get bags out of the boot is OK – but having a conversation with other drivers, going into the office or inside the school gates is not acceptable and only disrupts the flow of traffic.
• The sign says 2mins, however, please be mindful of all other parents and careers in this line and move on as fast as possible.
• It is not acceptable to move up on the right hand side past waiting cars with your indicator on to park up ahead of those waiting cars. This causes double parking, lack of sight for leaving cars, and a dangerous situation for both drivers and children exiting cars. Please be patient and wait your turn.
• When pulling out after dropping off – wait for the car in front to move forward first. This way we don’t have cars jutting out and causing congestion.
• Please do not park over the safe crossing area at any time.

There is also a drop off zone at the back of the school near the prep buildings.

• It is not permitted to turn right after coming out of this drop off area. It is not safe for those walking to school and who use the traffic island.
• As above - the driver is not to leave the car at any time while in this line. Helping get bags out of the boot is OK – but having a conversation with other drivers is not acceptable
• Please move on as soon as possible.

QSchools smart phone app for parents:

Education Qld launched a handy smart phone application where parents and carers can be instantly alerted to news and events at Graceville State School.

Events such as swimming carnival dates, free dress days, excursion updates and P&C meetings can be accessed using the QSchools smartphone app.

The QSchools app is available for free download from the iTunes store for Apple devices, and the Google Play store for Android-compatible devices.

If you would like to contact the P&C please email us at:

pandc@gracevilss.eq.edu.au or visit the school website at

Contact Club

The first meeting of the Contact Club kicks off next Wednesday the 3rd of February in the library straight after drop-off or reading groups. The Contact Club meets once a month to cover the many new library resources continually added to our library collection. We still have plenty to cover and would love a couple of hours of your time if you are able to help. Tea and coffee is provided and we like to share a nut-free snack if you’d like to bring one. If you are free or would like to find out more, please come along next Wednesday from when you have dropped off your children, after reading group, or when you are able. We usually meet for a couple of hours of covering and a good chat. The contact we use is a superior quality and not difficult at all, so don’t be put off by the thought of using tricky shop-bought-contact - it’s all good! For more information, please email Amanda - the carps.home@gmail.com

Tuckshop

Welcome to Tuckshop in 2016

Happy New Year. Hope you had a great break full of fun and relaxation and you are now ready for a fun and exciting year.

Volunteers for Week Commencing Monday, 1 February

Mon 1/2. Jennifer Loh
Tues 2/2. Michael Willamott and Hayley Smith and Jewl Velasquez-Holmes
Wed 3/2. Alison O'Keefe and Sharon Fozard
Thurs 4/3. Karin Veraa and Leanne Gordon
Fri 5/3. Yasmin McNally and Liz Fourie and Shonna Luke and Simone Braithwaite and LiLi

In the tuckshop there are plenty of changes, namely an updated Summer Menu and the move to a total online ordering system.

We trialled School24 in 2015 and a large number of the school population tried it and liked it. It certainly makes our life easier so we are full steam ahead to use it completely. We will, of course, manage "genuine emergencies" and feed your children accordingly but we do ask for your support and cooperation in our endeavours to get the tuckshop ordering system completely online.

To set yourself up, log onto:

and follow the instructions. It is super easy.

Graceville State School's registration ID is 25314963

Should you wish to use them you can use access the School24 User Guide and Registration Guide via the school website. The links below:

Of course if you are having any difficulties, please give either of us a shout or come and see us at the Tuckshop. We'll get you sorted.

Enjoy your first week back.

Anne and Amanda
tuckshop.gss@gmail.com.au

Uniforms & Stationery

Uniform Shop Opening Hours

Monday - 8.15 – 9.00am
Tuesday - 8.15 – 9.00am
Friday - 8.15 – 9.00am

Welcome to 2016.

If you have not ordered your child's Stars Plus Textbook (all years except Prep and Year 1) you need to do so through the Brodies Bookstore website. The books will be delivered directly to the school for all students.

We sell swim bags, silicon and fabric caps, quick dry towels and a limited selection of goggles, short sleeve rashies and Graceville togs.

The last remaining school cookbooks are in stock $10 each.

Donations of 2nd hand uniforms are always appreciated, especially at this time of year. 2nd hand uniforms are available for sale all year round.

Order forms are available on the School website. If you email the order, the items will be sent to the classroom.

Email address for school uniform store is:
uniformstore@gracevilss.eq.edu.au.

Community Notices

Swimming Clinic

Swim lessons will commence this Saturday January 30th at the school pool. The Saturday program is dedicated to one on one private lessons. Learn to swim and Stroke Correction classes for both children and adults are on offer. Lessons may also be booked for anyone who wants specialized instruction regardless of ability. This is a seven week program.

Group lessons for both beginner and advanced stroke development as well as a combined junior and senior squad will be on offer this term before and after school. This is an ability based program and students must be in year 1 or older and be able to swim at least one lap of freestyle nonstop [25 meters] before they can participate in group lessons. If students are unable to swim 25 meters freestyle they may enrol in private lessons in the Friday afternoon or Saturday morning program. A mini squad for children in beginner stroke development class is available this term. This class will focus on fitness training with technique.

An adult squad class has been included in the schedule before school and Saturday mornings. Class sizes are capped, so to avoid disappointment please apply for your preferred class time as soon as possible. For a copy of the swim schedule for term 1 please e-mail Pete Geraghty.

Experienced swim teachers are always wanted. Please get in touch with Pete Geraghty if you are looking for work. He can be contacted by phone: 0432407442 or e-mail: petegeraghty@hotmail.com

Graceville State School Tennis Coaching – Term 1

Before School, Lunch Time and After School Coaching will commence from Thursday 4th February 2016 (during the second week back after the holidays).

Due to the short first week back after the holidays & first term only being a 9 week term, in order to fit our 8 lessons into Term 1, we may have to overlap into Term 2 which is an 11 week term.

Enrolments close on Monday 1st February 2016. Spare enrolment forms are available from the School Office, they can also be downloaded from the School Newsletter. To ensure a place in class, forms must be returned by this date to the School Office. Do not return forms to the School Office after this date contact Jim Joyce directly on 0417 771022.

Special Offer – All new students in Grade 1 and 2 will receive a free tennis racquet when joining for the first time.

For further enquiries please contact Jim Joyce on 0417 771022